Dead Ends
by serpentqueen13
Summary: Life imitates art for Luna and Ginny, and no one but an old friend realises and understands. Warnings: Femmeslash and character death


Disclaimer 1: The characters are not mine. They belong to J.K. Rowling.

Disclaimer 2: This is a Luna/Ginny femmeslash. If you don't like it, don't read.

Disclaimer 3: The stanzas are the Scottish ballad Bonny Barbara Allan, which no one owns.

It was in and about the Martinmas time,

When the green leaves were a falling,

That Sir John Græme, in the West Country,

Fell in love with Barbara Allan.

It was early November when Ginny Weasley finally decided in her mind that it wasn't just some chemical reaction, or a phase, or a way to relieve some tension. No, she was really in love with Luna Lovegood and there was nothing she could do about it. Luna had disappeared, and no one she talked to knew where the bubbly blond ex-Ravenclaw had gone. What they didn't understand was the seriousness of the situation.

Everyone noticed the changes in Ginny's fighting style over the next few days and weeks, riskier, more impulsive, and vicious. She brought down morth Death Eaters in those few days than Harry, Ron and Hermione combined. The members of the Order warned her that she needed to be more careful, attack less, plan more. She didn't listen, they didn't understand why she was doing what she was doing. Then, during a rather fierce battle in Diagon Alley she was hit by a slow-working, fatal curse.

During the days in St Mungo's she only had one request--to see Luna Lovegood. Again no one understood, but they searched for the girl, if only to make the future war-hero happy.

He sent his man down through the town,

To the place where she was dwelling:

"O haste and come to my master dear,

Gin ye be Barbara Allan."

It was fellow Ravenclaw Padma Patil who found Luna, where no one would have looked for her, in a small flat in Muggle Brighton. Padma had appeared completely out of breath, she had run five flights of stairs to reach the apartment.

"Luna! Oh thank Merlin! I half-expected this to be yet another dead-end."

"When are ends dead?" Luna asked the Indian girl dreamily, but there was something haggard about her features that hadn't always been there.

"It doesn't matter." Padma replied, dismissively. She had never understood Luna. "Come with me. Ginny's dying and she wants to see you!"

O hooly, hooly rose she up,

To the place where he was lying,

And when she drew the curtain by,

"Young man, I think you're dying."

When the pair arrived at the apparation point in the hospital Luna wrinkled her nose in distaste. She hated this place. This had been where her mother had died. Without needing to be told where to go she started off in the direction of Ginny's room. When she got there she completely ignored the shocked questions of the ex-Gryffindors infesting the hallway, and walked into the room.

Ginny no longer looked like Ginny. Her skin was a bright, sickly white, she had lost weight and muscle tone, she had dark circles around her eyes, sweat covered her body, even as she shivered as if freezing. Luna say down on the plastic covered hospital chair, staring at the girl. "I think your dying, Ginevra."

"O it's I'm sick, and very, very sick,

And 'tis a' for Barbara Allan:"

"O the better for me ye's never be,

Tho your heart's blood were a spilling.

"Oh, I'm dying, all right." Ginny replied with a hacking cough. "But it's not why they think. Why did you leave? I missed you so much...I figured out that without you, there was no reason to live. I thought I'd go down and just take some Death Eaters with me on the way."

"O dinna ye mind, young man," said she,

"When ye was in the tavern a drinking,

That ye made the healths gae round and round,

And slighted Barbara Allan?"

"I'm just someone to feel sorry for, remember?" Luna replied in a sharp tone, losing the dreamy note in her voice in anger. "That's the only reason you hang out with me. You just feel bad that the little freak has no friends and no mother."

Ginny recognised the words--she had said them one night in The Three Broomsticks after a bit to much firewhiskey to Seamus Finnigan's question about why she was friends with Luna. She closed her eyes in shame and pain. "I never meant to hurt you, Luna."

"You never meant a lot of things, Ginny, and now it's too late." Luna replied, calm again and her voice as dreamy as always.

He turned his face unto the wall,

And death was with him dealing:

"Adieu, adieu, my dear friends all,

And be kind to Barbara Allan."

Ginny closed her eyes again, and when she spoke again it sounded tired. "I'm sorry Luna." She tried to laugh, but she couldn't choke the noise from her throat. "They'd best treat you well or I'll come back and haunt them."

"No you won't." Luna replied, placing a chaste kiss on Ginny's forehead and holding holding her hand.

And slowly, slowly raise she up,

And slowly, slowly left him,

And sighing said, she coud not stay,

Since death of life had reft him.

Luna was still holding her hand when she died, and because of that more than anything else, Ginny's corpse had a small smile on it's face. Luna sttod, rescued her hand, and left the room. "She's gone." Luna said, managing to still her face even as her neart was breaking all over again. "I can't stay now that she's gone." She left the hospital, unable to be surrounded by the crying, the tears, and the stench of death and cleaning products that hung around the hospital.

She had not gane a mile but twa,

When she heard the dead-bell ringing,

And every jow that the dead-bell gied,

It cry'd, Woe to Barbara Allan!

Luna needed to think, so she began walking away from the hospital, and every step seemed to bring new memories of her relationship with Ginny. The images wouldn't leave her mind, like small pinpricks in her mind. She walked blindly, not knowing or caring where she went. Therefore, she was surprised when she found herself outside her father's house and childhood home. She knocked softly on the door. It took a few moments but her father opened the door.

"O mother, mother, make my bed!

O make it saft and narrow!

Since my love died for me to-day,

I'll die for him to-morrow."

"Hi Daddy." She said, trying to smile. "Can I stay the night?" She needed to be here now.

"Of course, my little moon." Mr. Lovegood replied. "Just let me get some fresh sheets and blankets on your bed."

Later that night, Luna lie awake in her narrow childhood bed, crying silently and humming an old ballad her mother used to use to sing her to sleep, knowing that when she fell asleep she wouldn't wake again.

They buried him in the old churchyard;

Barbara Allen was buried beside him

A red rose at Sir John's grave,

And a green briar at Barbara Allen's.

The two girls were buried the same day, side by side, in the same old wizarding cemetary where so many they were close to had been borne to the grave. In the spring, old Mr. Lovegood came by and planted a flower for both of them, a red rose for Ginny, and a briar, her favourite, for his daughter.

They grew and grew in the old churchyard,

'Til they could grow no higher.

They locked and they tied in a true love's knot,

The red rose 'round the briar.

Many years later the people would come by and stare at the two plants, and some would suggest removing the pesky briar as it tangled around the rosebush, but no one ever would, because there are some peopple who always remember, and those people always see, and Mr. Ollivander would come by and chatter to the headstones, smiling as the plants slowly began to knot, and every time he left the grave, he would leave, whistling an old tune that he knew better than almost anyone, because he saw and understood.


End file.
